romanchurchesfandomcom-20200216-history
Santa Rita da Cascia a Monte Mario
'''Santa Rita da Cascia a Monte Mario '''is a mid 20th century parish church at Via Antonino Parato 5 in the Della Vittoria suburban district, north of Torrevecchia. Despite the name, it is not near Monte Mario as normally understood -the train station of the same name is close by, however. The dedication is to St Rita of Cascia. History Unusually, the church was built well before the parish existed. The suburb was laid out in 1948, and the landowner reserved a plot for a church. A small chapel building, intended to be temporary, was erected on it and opened in 1956. The architect was Francesco Fornari. The parish in charge was Nostra Signora di Guadalupe a Monte Mario. Initially a single Mass was celebrated every week, on the Sunday, and attempts later to provide pastoral services on weekdays depended on priestly volunteers. So, in 1969 the chapel entrusted to a priestly sodality of Rimini called the ''Pia Associazione Sacerdotale Gesù Divino Operario. ''In 1973 a sodality member called Don Carlo Quadracci took charge, and he was mainly responsible for elevating the chapel to parochial status. The parish was set up in 1981, and Don Carlo was the first parish priest. He remained as such until his death in 2010 and was succeeded by the present incumbent, Don Stefano Gaddini, who is one of the diocesan clergy of Rome. Exterior The church is a simple rectangular four-bay edifice in pink brick, with a tiny transverse rectangular apse. The roof is pitched and tiled, and the apse has its own lower little single-pitched roof. There are four pairs of vertical rectangular windows in the right hand side wall, but none in the left hand one because the ancillary wing with the parish offices abuts the church there. The church faces a small piazza above street level, with a revetting wall in random tufo stone blocks protected by green iron railings. The façade has a rectangular stone frame occupying the corners of the frontage, and running horizontally below the gable to create a false pediment. This frame is made up of random blocks painted white. The entrance has no porch, but is embellished by a pair of ribbed white semi-columns supporting a triangular pediment on a pair of abaci (flat tiles). The tympanum of the pediment has a bronze relief sculpture of St Rita. There seems to be no campanile. Interior The interior is in a pale yellow, including the blind pilasters separating the bays. These support open transverse triangular roof trusses, since there is no ceiling. The roof itself is in planking behind longitudinal rafters. Another pair of blind pilasters flanks the apse, running up to the roof. The altar has been brought out of the apse, and stands at the end of the nave. However, the tabernacle has been left in place and has a chased silver door set into a stylised cross sculpture. Above the apse is a pale brown monochrome fibreglass relief sculpture of ''The Last Supper, ''and two more sculptures of a pair of angels each are on each side. There is a wall aedicule with a statue of St Rita on the left hand nave wall. Access The church is open daily (parish website, July 2018): 7:15 (8:00 Sunday) to 12:00 (12:45 Sunday), 16:00 to 19:30. Liturgy Mass is celebrated (parish website, July 2018): Weekdays 17:00 (18:00 during DST); Sundays and Solemnities 10:00, 18:00. External links Official diocesan web-page Parish website Info.roma web-page Beweb web-page Category:Catholic churches Category:Outside the walls - North-West Category:Dedications to St Rita of Cascia Category:Parish churches Category:20th century